By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Political Editor
A socially-relevant and need-meeting group, New Life Community Care Initiative (NELCCI), has lauded the move by Anambra State House of Assembly in enacting a law to regulate smoking in public places.
It also advised lawmakers in Enugu to toe the same line of action and enact similar law.
NELCCI warned that if such laws were not put in place to check the dangerous trend, the next generation of tobacco addicts would pose a great threat to economic growth when they start coming down with tobacco-induced illnesses.
Ikem Uzoezie of Aguata 2 state constituency in Anambra State presented the bill for a law on regulation of smoking in public places, which was read for the first time last week during plenary.
The bill, if passed into law, would curtail indiscriminate smoking of any kind in open places.
In a statement in Enugu, signed by the Media Adviser, Ejike Onyia, the group pointed out that “there is danger ahead if tobacco smoking is continued treated with kid-glove.”
NELCCI Executive Director, Florence Ifeanyi-Aneke, stated that the bold step taken by the lawmakers in Anambra was the first attempt to curtail the epidemic of tobacco in Eastern Nigeria and should be replicated in Enugu and other Eastern states.
The activist posited that the importance of having such a law in Enugu was necessitated by a recent report by the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and Nigeria Tobacco Control Research Group (NTCRG), which listed Enugu among states targeted by tobacco companies to market tobacco to kids.
She further stated: “Big Tobacco, Tiny Targets Nigeria Report noted that school age children are exposed to cigarettes sold side by side candies. And of course, this is a ploy to lure them into procuring the colorful cigarettes after which they remain hooked for life.”
Ifeanyi-Aneke cautioned that if laws were not put in place to check the trend, the next generation of tobacco addicts was already being groomed and would pose a threat to economic growth when they start coming down with tobacco-induced illnesses.
Also she urged the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and other relevant agencies of government to begin enforcing the nine provisions of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act which does not require any law to be operationalized.
According to her, “The nine provisions include a ban on selling of tobacco to persons below the age of 18 years, prohibition of sale of tobacco in certain public places and sale of cigarettes in single sticks among others”.
